Tuesday evening, Debbie, a category 4 cyclone, hit north Queensland, wreaking havoc inland and in the Whitsundays, like Hamilton island. Thousands of people evacuated before Debbie landed but the destructive winds and impressively strong rain destroyed infrastructure, houses and boats.
Debbie then went for a little wet ride south.
Even if it lost much of its wind power the conjunction of the ex-cyclone with a low pressure system that was coming from the South created a real deluge that lasted nearly 1 day but swept the South East of Queensland as well as the North, leaving again thousands of people without a home. Some towns got 900mm of rain in just 48 hours! Schools were closed for two days and people were urged to be very careful. More than 1 million square kilometres are inundated and the Eastern side of Australia is now busy recovering but most of all cleaning.
On Merlin, we were fine, checking carefully the river level and keeping an eye on the wind gusts.
Today, we have some blue sky again, but the river is dark brown, reminding us too well the power of Mother Nature.